“This year will truly be remembered as being filled with My Dearest X. I think I’ll be spending the end of the year saying goodbye to Baek Ah-jin.”

Kim Yoo-jung, who shed her familiar image as a cute child actress and boldly transformed into a dark, intense character, reflected on her year as she stood on the AAA (Asia Artist Awards) stage for the first time in nine years. On December 6 at the Kaohsiung National Stadium, she received the Best Artist award and the AAA 10 Legendary Couple award at the 10th Anniversary Asia Artist Awards 2025, hosted by Star News. She earned widespread acclaim for her most intense and shadowed role to date in the TVING original series My Dearest X, which concluded on December 4.

My Dearest X tells the story of Baek Ah-jin (played by Kim Yoo-jung), a woman who wears a mask in order to escape hell and climb to the very top—and the people she ruthlessly crushes along the way. Baek Ah-jin is someone who overcomes painful childhood wounds to rise as Korea’s top actress. Kim Yoo-jung convincingly portrayed the cold-blooded villain who assesses situations without emotional turmoil, seizes control, and dominates with a calm tone of voice and subtle shifts in her gaze.

It was the apex of her dark transformation, oscillating between catharsis and stress. Although she once played a school-violence perpetrator in the 2014 film Thread of Lies, the tone here was distinctly different. She was drawn to the role precisely because it was unlike anything she had attempted before, and she approached the character with curiosity. She experienced Baek Ah-jin’s catharsis firsthand—while also feeling the emotional strain. Because the drama included graphic events and psychological depictions severe enough to receive a “Restricted to Ages 19 and Over” rating, she even suggested to the production team that they bring in a psychological counselor for the child actors involved.


Written by Yoon Sang Geun
Translated by Lee So Yun